A 47-year-old sewer pump station on the hill overlooking Yamba’s Convent Beach is to be demolished as part of moves to make the system more secure and environmentally sound.

Work will start on August 19 and will continue until mid-November, weather permitting.

Clarence Valley Council water cycle manager, Greg Mashiah, said the pump station was part of a gravity-fed system that was built in 1972 and damaged by storms in 2016. It will be replaced with a pressurised system, which has small pump stations on each property rather than a single large pump station.

“The old system could have been repaired, but because of site difficulties it was hard to calculate what those repairs might cost,” he said.

“A gravity sewer line located on the rock shelf presents an ongoing environmental risk if it should fail.

“The new pressure system doesn’t carry any of those environmental risks.”